Sebastian's race didn't get off to the
best of starts with him being pushed from 4th down to 6th
in the run to the first corner. Things however would go from bad to
worse when the German came across Bruno Senna into turn 4 sustaining
heavy damage to the rear of the right sidepod and crushing at least one of
the exhaust primaries. The shunt ended Senna's race but the young
German now facing the wrong way continued unperturbed by the damage
to his RB8.

My initial reaction when seeing the
damage was that aerodynamically although the car was now asymmetric
it wouldn't encumber his performance drastically. In fact my
immediate reaction was I'm sure Adrian will be glad that damage is on
the right side of the car with it being a clockwise circuit and most
of the high speed corners turning left.

Above: Adrian Newey had Sebastian
pull off the racing line alongside the pitwall so they could
photograph the damage to the RB8 as it passed. He inspects the
damage to assess what aerodynamic impact it may be having on his
design.

Alongside that my brain shuffled
through car designs like a fruit machine until seconds later: Bing,
Bing, Bing I have a line of cherries and I'm thinking of the McLaren
MP4-24 of which featured a floor design echoing the damage to
Sebastian's RB8.

Forward of the exhaust region damage,
the floor was also damaged at its edge (Marked by yellow arrows in the picture below). This damage once again was extremely fortunate with the floor being turned upward in
just the right place. The first upsweep created by the damage mimics
the profile of the Sidepod allowing the air to turn down the floor
instead of cascading off. Around 8-9 inches back the floor had been
stripped and three pieces of carbon were acting as aerodynamic
pieces. The smallest of the three resided above the floor and
further helped to encapsulate the airflow above the floor, meanwhile
below the floor 2 elements would work in unison to create a vortex
that would ultimately help to create a barrier at the floors edge.

Obviously the damage to the floor was
not the only impact on Seb's RB8 with a large hole featuring in the
rear of the Sidepod exposing the exhaust. The hole expanded the
point around the RB8's star feature this season the 'Cross-under
Tunnel' allowing more airflow into the region. Due to the way that
region is constructed the panel in front of the Tunnel was destroyed
and without it the airflow echoed the Williams FW34's ethos. The
intention of the Williams design is to utilise airflow that enters
the Sidepod by means of extraction with the exhaust gas. As the
Exhaust primaries on the RB8 were now exposed to this airflow they
would help to navigate this airflow to the tunnel region as it's
entrance is now exposed to both airflow regimes.

On top of this the
exhaust channel itself was broken away from it's usual position and
although I have no clear picture from above the exhaust channel, from
the side pictures it would suggest a break in the channel exists.
This break would allow airflow to move between the upper and lower
surface of the exhaust channel that wouldn't normally be viable. It
could be argued that this allowed exhaust gas to be re-ingested and
would also help with the flow structure entering the cross-under
tunnel.

A point worth noting is that had Red
Bull not recently redesigned their cross-under tunnel the aero impact
may have been altogether different. Previously the RB8's cross-under
tunnel featured 2 inlets and 2 outlets, however since India the team
had run with a much shorter ramp profile to their design which simply
featured one inlet and outlet.

Above: The damaged Primary on the RB8's exhaust

The damage to Sebastian's RB8 was not
limited to the bodywork but also damaged both his onboard Radio and
the exhaust. Communications from the team were still clear but the
team could not hear their driver clearly.
In terms of damage to
their exhaust, the impact wielded quite a dent in one the exhausts
primaries. Normally with damage of this magnitude I'd consider the
impact on both engine power and longevity both of which I'm sure the
team were concerned about. However in Sebastian's recovery from the
incident I can find no reference to them dialing back the revs or
changing the engine mapping. Sebastian continued to use full revs
along the two long straights for his first stint pushing hard to
recover the many places he had lost under the spin.
Red Bull opted
to use a Resonator Chamber from Silverstone onwards (My original
article looking into this:
http://somersf1.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/red-bull-exhaust-resonator-expansion.html)
which will have undoubtedly helped to balance any inaccuracies formed
by the new internal exhaust bulge.

Above: The image above is one I used earlier in the season to depict the Resonator Chamber on the RB8 however the red marked arrow shows roughly the location of the indentation caused in the Senna incident.

On the other side of the car further damage can be seen to the floor just ahead of the rear wheel, this was due to the impact sustained as Sebastian was going backwards and Senna's front suspension broke due to the forces at work.

Above: As we can see the rear of the floor had been broken in the impact with Senna causing the floor to turn upward. This also moved the vertical floor strake altering the characteristics of the exhaust plume. Ferrari's floor is designed to upturn in a similar fashion utilising the floor slots ahead of it that the break had caused here, inadvertently returning the RB8 to having a floor duct like the ones they had removed after the complaints at Monaco. The image also shows that during the incident with Senna the tyre itself had deformed with the lower section of the bead being pulled slightly away from the rim and the sidewall in that area looking flatter (Although this could be image quality and the scrubbed sidewall playing tricks with my eyes)

Going back to engine maps/torque maps, diff settings
and engine revs: If were to look at the signature Adrian Newey
'Butterfly' Steering Wheel in the picture below we can see that Red
Bull have a multi function 'TYRE' rotary knob which allows them to
grade all sorts of settings based on the conditions and tyres in use.
Selecting one of these presets should override the other dials allowing the
driver to focus on the task at hand. We can also see that for each tyre type (Dry, Inters, Wets) there are several settings pertaining to a larger degree of adaptability (I'll mention this throughout
the rest of the race report below) As we can see the driver also has
two thumb wheels to control the differential and torque map settings
ideally placed for swift modification but due to their locality it
makes it difficult even with onboard footage to see if these are
being used.

Above: This image is a full size replica of the RB8's steering wheel brilliantly depicted by Amalgam only 250 of these are available and would cost you a cool £1750. I can't seem to find enough change down the back of the sofa to fund the masterpiece but should you be lucky enough to be able to fund one of these they can be found here: http://www.amalgamcollection.com/

Upon recovery from his spin the first
victim on his now seemingly endless up hill struggle would be the
driver he nicknamed the 'cucumber' Narain Karthikeyan. He dispatched
of Narain in the middle of the Senna S's who obliged by moving over
to the left as Seb overtook him just before the Yellow Flag zone, for
that lap started into turn 2/3.

Above: Sebastian lines up to overtake Narain into turn 2, we can see that the Electronic Flag
Board is displaying the Yellow Flags however no dash lights are
illuminated indicating that the drivers will be under yellow flag
conditions when they pass that marker.

On lap 3 the
yellow flag zone ran from turn 1 until half way alongside the pit
exit with the electronic Flag Board showing Green on the right as Seb lined up to overtake Charles Pic (although the pass wasn't
completed until the apex of turn 4). Toward the middle of the lap he overtakes
De La Rosa at turn 8.

On Lap 4 the
yellow flag zone was extended to cover the pit exit, I believe this
may have been intended as a safety precaution for anyone that should be exiting the pits. Earlier in the week this has been an area of controversy something which I myself may have even fueled on twitter. (I was away on the Mainland working with nothing more than my iPhone but did post a picture of Seb overtaking Jean-Eric Vergne whilst his dash indicators were showing a yellow flag zone)

Above: Sebastian approaches the Toro Rosso of Jean-Eric Vergne on lap 4 whilst both the electronic flag board on his right and dash indicators show a yellow flag situation.

Above: On lap 3 the leaders were waved a yellow flag as they passed the pit exit

Above: On Lap 3 as the tail end of the pack (with Vettel) came toward the pit exit the yellow flag was retracted and they were then waved the green flag signalling a return to race conditions

Although I don't have the photographic proof I believe the same scenario was used by race control / the marshals for lap 4 covering the potential for anyone exiting the pitlane joining into a battle for position. The problem is the inconsistency between electronic flags and the good old fashioned waved ones with the latter taking preference.

As he continued around his fourth lap Seb overtook Glock into turn 8.

Pass on Petrov on Lap 5: The yellow
flag zone ran from turn 1 until half way alongside the pit exit just
as it had for the Charles Pic pass on Lap 3. Turn 6 Schumacher pulled over to allow
Sebastian and Heikki to pass having picked up a puncture and was
heading back to the pitlane in order to change tyres.

Lap 6 and the yellow flags have been
retracted with Seb overtaking Heikki into turn 1, during the lap Mark
Webber drops it in an incident involving Ricciardo in turn 1 (Leaving
more debris on the track in that region) and falls behind Sebastian.
Sebastian's then proceeds to pass the Toro Rosso driver along the
next straight who does little to defend against the charging German.
At the end of the lap he gets a good tow behind Rosberg and overtakes
him into turn 1 where we now start to see the solid Yellow/Red flags
displayed.

Lap 8 and the yellow/red flags are
being shown into turn 1,2 & 3 but with DRS activated Seb makes a
pass on Paul Di Resta into turn 4. Next up is Kamui Kobayashi who is
visually struggling in the damp conditions having already used the
new run off area on the lap into turn 1. Yellow Flags are shown on
the electronic boards and dash into turn 8 and Sebastian is forced to
slow and short shift whilst following the flailing Kobayashi. It's
clear at this point the RB8 simply has much greater traction than the
C31 and as the pair go under green conditions at turn 13 Vettel
closes and uses the tow to pass the Japanese driver. Sky started the
FlagGate controversy by claiming initially that Seb had passed Kamui
here under yellow flag conditions when in fact the electronic boards
weren't flashing and no dash lights were visible.

At the end of lap 8 Mark Webber having
already been involved in his own incidents and now at the rear of the
pack went into the pits and took the intermediate tyres giving the
team a sighter on how Sebastian may fare on the same rubber.
Meanwhile Sebastian's storming drive on the Medium compound tyres
whilst lapping at a pace consistent to the leaders found himself back
upto 6th position. With him now behind Felipe Massa on
the track and the rain starting to affect the lap times (Lap 8:
1:29.701 & Lap 9: 1:30.824) the team decided to pit him for
Inter's to cover off Fernando who had also pitted for the
Intermediate tyres. As he exited the pits he
made a change to the top left dial on his steering wheel to the
'Inter' setting which in turn will adjust the engine map. This
placed Seb back in 17th just behind Webber who then
proceeded to overtake Ricciardo (in turn 5) that was in front of both
of them. The Toro Rosso driver naturally yielded to Sebastian in
between turn 6 & 7.

Lap 11 and both Mark (in front) and Seb
come off the 3rd turn with DRS available and dispatched of
Kimi Raikonnen. In turn 8 the pair dispatched of Karthikeyan who
moved over allowing them by, then in turn 9 the Red Bulls swapped
positions as Mark allowed Sebastian by. With the deployment of KERS
by Seb out of turn 14 it was obvious to see that even with the
Inter's on traction is still limited as the RB8 squirmed a little
under acceleration.

Lap 12 and just as Seb is coming into
turn 3 he is greeted by the slower moving HRT of De La Rosa who moves
over to the left not before Seb gains a little tow off of him and
catapults him toward the DRS zone. This overspeed allows him to pass
both Charles Pic to his right whilst mounting an assault on Nico
Rosberg who had stayed left. He was unable to pass Nico by turn 4
but his German counterpart starting from the left had compromised his
entry point but squirmed off toward turn 5. Biding his time and
lifting a coasting much more than usual it was clear to see the RB8
had much more balance than the W03 throughout turns 6 – 13 where
Seb drew up alongside and dispatched of Nico with the use of KERS up
the hill.

Lap 13 and Sebastian once again caught
up with a slower car heading into turn 3 making easy work of Petrov
he once again had DRS available down the main straight toward turn 4.
This put him onto the tail of Heikki as he squabbled with Kobayshi.
Meanwhile Sebastian's main title protagonist was being held up by a
Toro Rosso (Vergne) still running around on the medium tyres.

Lap 14 and with Sebastian once again in
the DRS zone the Red Bull driver now chased Kobayshi toward turn 4
with Felipe Massa just ahead of the pair of them still tip toeing
around on the Medium tyres making it very easy for Kamui and Seb to
make the pass out of turn 5. Just like their previous encounter Seb
made fairly easy work of the Japanese driver overtaking him into turn
1 on the start of lap 15 promoting Sebastian to 5th.

Between Laps 14&16 the front
runners who had continued on the Medium tyres are now squabbling for
the lead with Hulkenberg over hauling Jenson Button for the lead.
Both drivers times fell below the Intermediate runners but Nico
managed to overhaul Jenson on lap 17.

Lap 18 and Fernando decides to pit once
more taking on the Hard tyre promoting Sebastian to 4th
who pits a lap later (Lap 19) as the circuit starts to dry once more
and the Intermediate's start to become ineffective. Fernando does
enough during his in and outlaps to once again stay in front of
Sebastian who are once again 4th and 5th
respectively.

End of Lap 20 and the Safety car is
out. When the Safety Car came in on Lap 29 Sebastian used an
aggressive rear tyre warm up strategy and sawed away on the the wheel
to heat the front tyres. However once the racing got back under way
he had Kobayashi for company to his left into the first corner and
Mark Webber to his right. His Australian team mate over cooked the
braking and went off into the new run off area. Kamui however
unsettled the balance and sped off past Vettel toward turn 2. On Lap
32 Kamui put the move on Fernando only for him to return the favour
into turn 1 on Lap 33 all the while Sebastian was hovering hoping to
pick up the pieces and whilst having DRS caught upto the back of
Sauber only to hit the limiter (The full 18,000rpm) at the end of the
straight before turn 4.

Lap 34 and we can now see how much more
downforce the RB8 has bolted on with Sebastian using all of KERS on
the last straight in Lap 33 just to hang onto the back of the Sauber.
Once through the Senna S's although a couple of blips of KERS and
DRS were in operation for Sebastian the Ferrari of Felipe Massa still
came past around the outside of turn 4. A reinvigorated Felipe in
the tail end of 2012 has certainly played the team game and his
presence in front of Sebastian would be sure to put the pressure on
the young German. He piled on more pressure on Lap 37 when he
overtook Kamui putting himself squarely between Fernando and
Sebastian.

With the conditions now starting to
create a drier line on the circuit the Ferrari powered cars in front
of Sebastian started to slowly pull away. Clearly, the damage to
Sebastian's car and the probable higher downforce setting chosen for
rainier conditions was starting to show. Starting to lose anywhere
between 1 – 3 tenths per lap

With his Front Left Tyre now starting
to show signs of some hefty wear Sebastian made his second stop on
Lap 52 changing to the Medium tyre exiting in 10th place.
He forgets to make the alteration to his Steering Wheel 'Tyre' Knob
on pit exit and squirms out of the pitlane, more sideways action
ensues out of turn 4 until he makes the alteration on the way to turn
5.

On Lap 53 whilst making a rash move
down the inside of Lewis Hamilton, Nico Hulkenberg crashed into Lewis
ending his race with front right suspension damage.

Red Bull saw this as an opportunity
with the rain still falling to switch Sebastian back onto Inter's,
with Lewis out and the competitors further down the road he still lay
10th. With 15 laps left and Fernando now in 4th
Sebastian would still be crowned Champion. However with a likely
drive through penalty for Nico Hulkenberg due to the collision with
Lewis he'd need to grab a few extra places and go all out attack.
The bad news for Sebastian was undoubtedly the sight of the Sauber of
Kamui Kobayshi as he exited the pits in front. Having been stuck
behind Kamui for some time before I'm sure his heart must have sank.
However this was when the track conditions suited the Sauber, with
the weather turning the advantage now very much lay in the favour of
the higher downforce RB8.

Sebastian made quick work of Kamui
overtaking the Japanese driver on lap 56 but mainly due to Narain
getting on the racing line exiting turn 3 compromising Kamui's exit.
Seb couldn't get the pass done down the straight with both drivers
having DRS. However Kamui had compromised his exit speed for turn 4
and Seb capitilized. The next two laps were key for Seb and he posted
bar far the the quickest times out on circuit at the time with a
1:25.927 & 1:26.927 respectively.

On lap 63 having followed Michael closely for
half a lap, Michael pulled over to allow Sebastian past between turns
5 & 6 promoting Sebastian to 6th a place he would
finish the race in. This move to me perfectly symbolized the
changing of the guard with Sebastian edging one more championship
closer to the stellar 7 championships won by Michael.

3 comments:

Best race in ages for me, brought back to life on a chilly Sunday afternoon. Flag gate however and the incessant torrent of was / wasn't did numb my brain cell for 36 hrs until decent pics emerged. As for Senna going for it:1. Missed forward floor damage, as I was focused on:2. Fractured primaries & / or collector resulting in immediate or incipient failure.3. Terminal damage to LHR suspension.4. Structural damage to x-over tunnels and exhaust trough.But as in Abu Dhabi luck (ahem) went Seb's way. I can say this with authority as I have my Senna S tee-shirt on.Great article Matt. As for your steering wheel: toilet roll cores and sticky-backed plastic or commission Will G to do it.

Brazilian Grand Prix is a Formula One championship race which is currently held at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace from 13-15 Nov 2015. This circuit is one of the few F1 racetracks which run anticlockwise, which combined with its high altitude, makes it one of the most challenging circuits for drivers. Watch Sao Paulo Grand Prix Brazil Live

Whilst I'm trying to keep atop of the blog you may have noticed of late that there is less content appearing. For those of you that haven't realised, most of my work has now been moved over to Motorsport.com where I'm working with Giorgio Piola.

I'm still doing the technical image gallery for each GP with the continued support of friend of the site Sutton Images. However, as always my time is limited and so this might not be updated as quickly as it once was, so keep checking back.

As some of you may have found out already I'm also working with the Missed Apex crew on their podcast from time-to-time, either doing race reviews or dedicated 'Tech Time' shows.

I've embedded the latest version of the podcast below and will update this a frequently as I appear. However, please head over to Itunes if you want it to appear in your player when episodes are available. The show is great to work on and has a great lineup of 'regulars' but has also enticed some bigger names recently too, with Will Buxton and Bradley Philpot on shows during the summer break.

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